More than a hundred hairy competitors gathered in Brighton for the first British Beard and Moustache Championships.

The event was hosted by The Handlebar Club, a UK club for gentlemen with large moustaches, which was set up over 65 years ago in a London theatre.

There were different categories for the fuzzy-faced competitors including Natural, English, Freestyle. Partial Beard categories were Natural Goatee, Musketeer, Freestyle and Sideburns Freestyle.

For full beards, competitors battled it out in the Natural Full, Natural Full with Styled Moustache and Freestyle categories as well as best-made false beard.

The Brighton conference centre was packed with more than 2500 cheering fans for this most unusual of spectacles.

On the day the blue ribboned category winners were - Richard Evans-Lacey, winner of the Beard Freestyle category and Michael Bates in the Sideburns or "Mutton chops" category.

Italian Fulvio Franchi took top honours in the Handlebar moustache category, whilst another foreign competitor Matt Brown from Australian out-gunned his rivals in the Beard Freestyle moustache category.